Highlight Tracks: "Blowback" and "(Cheers and Applause)"
For More Info: Check out http://www.truckstoprecords.com or http://www.mattmarque.com
Artist: MELLOWDRONE
Album: Go Get 'Em Tiger EP
The Scoop: Mellowdrone has undergone some substantial changes since we last heard from them. While frontman Jonathan Bates used to be a one-man show, he has now opened the Mellowdrone doors to a full, real band that even contributes to the songwriting on a pair of tracks. He's even left the bedroom behind in favor of a hooked-up studio. It's a testament to Bates that the subsequent sound hasn't changed all too much (his earlier work had very few of the usual marks of DIY recordings). As with the previous EP, a demonstration of intellectual property, this one is uneven, but the high points - most notably the opening two tracks - reconfirm Bates as a significant craftsman. While I previously enjoyed his more restrained tracks, the new band is at its best when it is busiest, as on the ambitiously structured but highly accessible "Worst Song Ever." Bates likes to build large, dense walls of sound - droning guitars and reverb - but he's also confident enough in his voice, rightly so, to sing over the simplest and quietest of programmed backbeats ("I'm Too Young"). EPs sometimes get the stepchild treatment, but if the forthcoming full-length harnesses the potential heard here, Mellowdrone could become critic's darlings.Highlight Tracks: "Worst Song Ever" and "Bone Marrow"
For More Info: Head to http://www.mellowdrone.com
Artist: OTIS TAYLOR
Album: Double V
The Scoop: Otis Taylor both is and isn't your typical classic bluesman. He's had the requisite formative trauma (his uncle was shot to death, leading to his family's relocation from Chicago to Denver). He has the voice of a very old soul. Yet he left music behind to pursue a successful career as an antiques dealer and professional bicycle team coach, professions that sound downright upper middle-class. Since his return in 1995, Taylor has attracted attention with some of his oddball tendencies, like the repetitive, droning chords that frame his songs. He seems to be more interested in channeling other people's blues than wailing about his own. Poverty and racism are the two dominant motifs, and Taylor keeps his subject matter from going stale by investing so heavily in each of his subjects. At times, granted, Double V is soaked in pathos (one song revolves around being so poor you're forced to eat dog food, another song revolves around being so poor you're forced to eat reindeer meat), and we could do without the contrived laughter and whispers. In all, though, it's an all-too-rare reminder that the blues has a promising present to go along with its storied past.
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